


Last Reproach

by Lavanya_Six



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-29 19:34:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10142438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavanya_Six/pseuds/Lavanya_Six
Summary: For six hundred days, the Fire Nation has sieged Ba Sing Se.Today will be the last day.





	

Lu Ten, alone in his tent, contemplated the knife in his hand.

 _This_ , he told himself, _is the only way._

Since the siege began some two years ago, the goal of breaching the Outer Wall had taken on mythological connotations. "No one has ever done it," he had heard time and again. "Chin controlled the rest of the Earth Kingdom, yet he chose to fight the Avatar rather than invade Ba Sing Se. When we breach the Wall, our flag will fly over the Earth King's palace before the leaves fall from the trees."

Yet a nagging voice within Lu Ten always wanted to ask, "And why exactly did a continent-spanning army of rebel earthbenders choose to avoid winning their civil war?"

Over six hundred days, Lu Ten had formulated some theories as to why. Perhaps Chin wanted Avatar Kyoshi to bestow upon him a Mandate of Heaven. Or maybe Chin believed defeating the Avatar would cow the Earth King into surrendering without a fight. Yet now, having aided in the breakthrough of the Outer Wall and secured a foothold inside the Agriculture Zone, Lu Ten knew the bone-deep truth why Chin's Rebellion never attacked Ba Sing Se.

It was because Chin knew better.

Fifteen hundred men to secure the Breach before the earthbenders could repair it. Another thousand lost in the honeycomb of tunnels within the Wall, pushing the Earth Kingdom soldiers back. Over seven thousand men just to take the defensive ridge the earthbenders had built where they knew the Breach would likely take place; the attackers had been climbing ramparts made from mounds of their comrade's corpses by the end of the battle. Nearly ten thousand men—gone. And that was counting only the dead. Three times has many had been wounded, many with injuries that they would scar them for the rest of their lives. All for a mere foothold. There were miles to go before the army reached the Inner Wall. Ba Sing Se promised to be a meat grinder for an entire generation of loyal Fire Nation soldiers.

Lu Ten had tried reasoning with his father, tried to persuade him to consider the horrors that awaited the Fire Nation on the road ahead, but the Dragon of the West only had eyes for doing the impossible: conquering Ba Sing Se. The methods and cost were unimportant. But what value had the city's agricultural fields if they were savaged and burned in the act of taking them? What tax could be collected from the city's citizens if they fought to the bitter end?

Better to wait for the Comet.

Better to go home.

But such effort was pointless. Their last meeting had ended with his father berating him in front of the General Staff as a coward. 

So, he would _make_ his father listen.

Lu Ten, alone in his tent, contemplated the knife in his hand. His great-grandfather, the glorious Fire Lord Sozin, had outlawed the ancient custom of ritual suicide as a backwards tactic employed in a less civilized age. Yet Lu Ten had studied the procedure as part of his history lessons. It had served a certain political utility. Once, subjects in the Fire Nation could protest a superior's decisions in a way that saved both individuals face. It was the ultimate polite reproach: to sacrifice your life for the well-being of your misguided superior.

The knife... did its work. Lu Ten quickly wrapped his midsection, even as the horizontal cut seeped red through the white bandages.

It looked a little like a blossoming flower.

Grimacing, Lu Ten rose to his feet. The bandage held. His insides burned. Staggering outside, he made his way toward General Iroh's tent.

This time his father would listen. And once he did, Lu Ten would say goodbye.


End file.
